I had the choice to either see the new Insidious movie or the latest Jason Statham hitting and shooting people. I chose the latter cause I knew it would be more fun. You know what you are getting with a Jason Statham film. He usually plays an ex army guy or ex special forces or in this case an ex-police officer that finds himself framed for the murder of the man he is protecting because the company is about to be sold and some criminals want to use the business to transport people in a human trafficking ring and Statham is trying to find out who killed his boss.
Jason Statham is as good as he always is. He isn't the best actor in the world but he gets by on his fight scenes and the fact he understands his audience and doesn't stray too far away from that. There was one moment where he attempts to show he has some range but getting teary eyed over his dead dad who we learn died trying to save his son. He doesn't quite pull it off but it was fun seeing him attempt something some 30 years after first appearing in Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Annabelle Wallis plays Angie who is summoned to the ship at the last minute and ends up helping Statham’s Cole. I thought that Wallis did a good job with what was a rather limited role. They do have a silly scene where they are in the engine room and are communicating on headsets which made me wonder why they didn't just shoot the scene in another room but both Statham and Wallis do well with it and work well together.
There are the usual issues with a Statham film, the plot is somewhat cliched and generic and I thought having the boat as the singular setting would be a huge advantage because I usually like films with one setting but it felt like it was a disadvantage. Also the fact that whilst the captain (Roland Møller) is a villain the main villain is actually Daniles (Simon Kluth) who is only in the film for about 10 minutes and 2 of those are his death scene. Ok it led to a good one liner from Statham but I think the film would have been better served with just one main villain and that would be the captain cause he was quite good.
At the point where Statham kills the captain with the harpoon gun, the crowd in the screening I was in cheered. Not quietly but quite loud in a way that I hadn't heard for a very long time. It was quite surprising that the screening was as full as it was. I would say that it was about half full and ok the screen was one of the smaller ones but that's still an impressive turnout for a film that will end up on Sky Cinema in a couple of months. I did enjoy this film although I enjoyed Shelter a lot more. I felt that the film did not embrace the absurdity of the situation as much as other Statham films. The fact that everyone is putting in effort helps cover up some of the issues with the film but if you want to spend 90 minutes watching Statham beat people up then this is well worth your time. It’s just that there are better Statham films out there.
No comments:
Post a Comment